LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD

'''Live Free or Die Hard''' (released as '''Die Hard 4.0''' or '''Die Hard 4''' outside North America) is the fourth installment in the ''Die Hard'' film series. It stars Bruce Willis as John McClane, the protagonist of the first three films. The film takes place some 19 years after the first film, and sees McClane face a gang of virtual terrorists. The film's North American release date was June 27, 2007.^[2] The film was based on the 1997 article "A Farewell to Arms" written for ''Wired'' magazine by John Carlin.^[3]

Contents

Plot

Cast

Production

Rating

Reception

Trivia

Soundtrack

DVD Release

Video game

References

External links

Plot

At the start of the film, a terrorist breaches a FBI facility's computer system, and computer hackers are assassinated by the terrorist mastermind Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), instead of being paid for their collaboration. The FBI, unaware of the killings, dispatches NYPD Police Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) to visit a known hacker, Matthew Farrell (Justin Long), as part of their investigation regarding the breach. Gabriel's henchmen attempt to assassinate McClane and Farrell, but their targets escape. McClane transports Farrell to the FBI's Washington DC headquarters and its head, Assistant Director Bowman (Cliff Curtis), in the midst of a shutdown of the traffic system in DC. The stock market is manipulated shortly afterward, causing it to crash.
McClane is ordered to take Farrell into protective custody, and Gabriel sends more henchmen to kill the pair. McClane and Farrell evade their assassins again, and as the country's infrastructure is threatened with a major break down, Farrell tells McClane the terrorists are initiating a fire sale and that major utilities would be next. The detective and the hacker travel to a power hub in West Virginia to defend it, finding that the terrorists are already there. McClane battles terrorists while Farrell undoes the damage done to the computer system. They are contacted by Gabriel, who finds out that McClane has killed his lover Mai Linh (Maggie Q) and angrily re-routes gas lines to destroy the hub in a gas explosion. McClane and Farrell escape once more, and on Farrell's advice, the pair visit his hacker friend the Warlock (Kevin Smith) for help. At the Warlock's home, they find out about Gabriel's background and attempt to hack into the terrorist's systems. Gabriel contacts the detective at the Warlock's home via webcam, and he shows that he has McClane's daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as a hostage. While McClane distracts Gabriel in conversation, Warlock determines Gabriel's location, at a hijacked NSA building.
McClane and Farrell travel to the NSA building, and the detective combats terrorists while Farrell discovers and tries to undo Gabriel's plan to steal backup financial information from servers in the building. Farrell is able to lock the terrorists out of their server hack, rendering the task incomplete, and the he is taken hostage by the terrorists. With McClane after them, Gabriel and his henchmen flee the building with their hostages. McClane manages to hijack one of the escaping trucks and pursues Gabriel and the hostages. Gabriel renders a hack to deceive the pilot of a F-35 Lightning II jet to attack McClane's truck. The jet engages McClane, but the detective is able to escape. He tracks Gabriel to a warehouse, where the terrorist is forcing Farrell to undo the encryption at gunpoint. McClane and Farrell are able to kill Gabriel and his men before they force Farrell to decrypt the lock, resolving the crisis. The FBI arrives shortly after to tend to the wounds of Farrell, McClane, and his daughter. The final shot is McClane and his daughter leaving in an ambulance.

Cast

★ Bruce Willis as John McClane

★ Justin Long as Matt Farrell

★ Timothy Olyphant as Thomas Gabriel

★ Cliff Curtis as Miguel Bowman

★ Maggie Q as Mai Linh

★ Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lucy McClane

★ Tim Russ as Agent Summers

★ Kevin Smith as Warlock/Freddie

★ Christina Chang as Taylor

★ Yorgo Constantine as Russo

★ Andrew Friedman as Casper

★ Sung Kang as Raj

★ Matt O'Leary as Clay

★ Cyril Raffaelli as Rand

★ Jonathan Sadowski as Trey

Production

The film's plot is based on an earlier script entitled ''WW3.com'' by David Marconi, screenwriter of ''Enemy of the State''.^[4] Using a ''Wired'' article entitled "A Farewell to Arms"^[5] by John Carlin, Marconi crafted a screenplay about a cyber-terrorist attack on the U.S.^[6] After the 9-11 attacks, the project was stalled, only to be resurrected several years later and rewritten into ''Live Free or Die Hard'' by Doug Richardson and eventually by Mark Bomback.^[7]
Willis said in 2005 that the film would be called ''Die Hard 4.0'', as it revolves around computers. IGN later reported the film was to be called ''Die Hard: Reset'' instead.^[8] 20th Century Fox later announced the title as ''Live Free or Die Hard'' and set a release date of June 29, 2007 with filming to begin in September 2006.^[9][10] The title is based on the state motto of New Hampshire, "Live Free or Die," which is attributed to a quote from General John Stark. International trailers use the ''Die Hard 4.0'' title,^[11] as the film was released outside North America with that title.
Filming for ''Live Free or Die Hard'' started in downtown Baltimore, Maryland on September 23, 2006.^[12] Willis was injured January 24, 2007 during a fight scene, when he was kicked above his right eye. The injury was regarded as "no big deal" and Willis saw a doctor and went home for the rest of the day.^[13]
Bruce Willis' stunt double, Larry Rippenkroeger, was seriously injured when he fell twenty-five feet to the pavement. He suffered broken bones in his face and fractures in both wrists. Production was temporarily shut down. Willis picked up the tab at area hotels for Rippenkroeger's parents and visited him a number of times at the hospital.
The involvement of McClane's daughter in the film was previously considered for ''Die Hard with a Vengeance'', and was used in the video game ''. It was speculated that Bruce Willis' real life daughter Rumer, who was born the same year that the original ''Die Hard'' was released, was a prime candidate for the part of Lucy McClane. Jessica Simpson, Wafah Dufour and Britney Spears had previously auditioned for the role; Paris Hilton had been considered for the role, as had Taylor Fry, who played Lucy in the original ''Die Hard'' movie in 1988. The role of Lucy eventually went to Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
The Social Security Datacenter exteriors were shot at Diamond Ranch High School in California.^[14]

Rating

The past three installments in the ''Die Hard'' series have all been rated R by the MPAA. However, ''Live Free or Die Hard'' sparked controversy because it was edited to obtain a PG-13 rating. Bruce Willis was upset with the studio's decision, stating, “I really wanted this one to live up to the promise of the first one, which I always thought was the only really good one.” to ''Vanity Fair''. “That’s a studio decision that is becoming more and more common, because they’re trying to reach a broader audience. It seems almost a courageous move to give a picture an R rating these days. But we still made a pretty hardcore, smashmouth film.”^[15]
Willis later confirmed that it was PG-13, but thought that viewers unaware that it was not an R-rated film would not suspect it in watching it, due to the level and intensity of the action, and the usage of some amount of profanity, albeit less than the previous films.^[16] He even claimed that this film was the best of the four by saying “It’s unbelievable. I just saw it last week.I personally think, it’s better than the first one.”^[17]

Reception

As of August 31, 2007, the film had a score of 80% with a certified "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 178 reviews (143 Fresh, 35 Rotten)^[18] with the consensus being it is "an efficient, action-packed summer popcorn flick"^[19] and a score of a generally favorable 69% on Metacritic based on 32 reviews.^[20] The movie has also received generally favorable reviews in The Washington Post^[21] and IGN (who scored the movie as a four out of five stars).^[22] On ''Ebert and Roeper'', film critic Richard Roeper and guest critic Katherine Tulich gave the film "Two Thumbs Up", with Richard Roeper opining that the film is "not the best or most exciting ''Die Hard'', but it ''is'' a lot of fun", and remarking, "Willis is in top form in his career-defining role."^[23] Michael Medved gave the film three and a half out of four stars, opining, "a smart script and spectacular special effects make this the best ''Die Hard'' of 'em all."^[24]
''Live Free or Die Hard'' made $9.1 million in its first day of release, the best opening day take of any film in the ''Die Hard'' franchise (not taking inflation into account). On its opening weekend ''Live Free or Die Hard'' made $33.3 million ($48.3 million counting Wednesday and Thursday). As of September 5, 2007, ''Live Free or Die Hard'' has made $133.6 million domestically, and $223.3 millon overseas, a total of $356.9 million. It is currently the second most successful film of the series behind Die Hard with a Vengeance ($361,212,499).^[25]

Trivia

★ At one point, McClane confronts an "Agent Johnson". In the first ''Die Hard'', he'd confronted two FBI partners both named "Agent Johnson".

Soundtrack

★ The song that plays during the end credits is "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

★ The song playing when McClane is in Farrell's apartment to take him to Washington DC is "I'm So Sick" by Flyleaf.

DVD Release

The DVD is set for release on November 20, 2007 in an unrated version and theatrical version. Fox has also announced the Blu-Ray release will only feature the PG-13 "theatrical" cut.

Video game

Main articles: Live Free or Die Hard (video game)

A video game based on the film appeared on the ESRB ratings board for the Xbox 360. It is strongly suspected of being an Xbox Live Arcade title at this point.^[26]

References

1.
2.
3.
4. Fox eyes 'WW3.com' as tentpole for 1999 Chris Petrikin
5. A Farewell to Arms
6. Besson To Develop ''WW3.com''
7. The ‘Die Hard’ is cast for scribe Richardson Michael Fleming
8.
9. Live Free or Die Hard on June 29, 2007!
10. Willis Confirms 'Die Hard 4' Nearly Ready To Roll
11. The International LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD Trailer Calls It DIE HARD 4.0!?!? Merrick
12. Filming of movie to close numerous city streets
13. Ain't That A Kick In The Head: Bruce Willis Injured
14. List of movies filmed at Diamond Ranch High School, at the Internet Movie Database.
15. Live Free or Die Hard to be cut for a PG-13 Rating?! Peter Sciretta
16. Confirmed: Live Free or Die Hard is Rated PG-13
17. Bruce Willis says Live Free or Die Hard is better than Die Hard
18.
19.
20.
21.
22. http://movies.ign.com/articles/799/799604p1.html
23. Richard Roeper and Jennifer Tulich on an episode of ''Ebert & Roeper''.
24. Michael Medved's Review of ''Live Free or Die Hard''; michaelmedved.com
25. http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=diehard4.htm
26.

External links

★

★

★ ''Live Free or Die Hard'' review at Famoso Magazine

★

★ ''Die Hard 4.0'' review at iomtoday.co.im

★ ''Live Free Or Die Hard'' review at Dreamlogic.net

★ ''Live Free Or Die Hard'' review at ZonaFreak.com.ar (Spanish)

★ "A Farewell to Arms", the Wired article on which the movie's script was based

★ ''Live Free or Die Hard'' trailer at Yahoo! Movies